Anchorage

Phasma, not any longer. We tried that a few years ago but the winds kicked up late at night and it was pandemonium getting everyone unhooked. Plus, I had planned on staying there all night so I had a bit more to drink than I usually do, and WAY more than I would if I knew I would be moving the boat. I don't like backing the boat into the slip in a high wind so that night we just anchored out but in a different area where there were no boats around.

Most of the smaller boats leave by sunset so they can be back on the trailer and home before too late. The express cruisers are usually slipped and they take off around dusk. The one or two boats who are left usually head out shortly after dark.

It's interesting--there seems to be a direct INVERSE relationship between the size of the boat and the amount of booze consumed. Those of us with larger boats either don't drink at all (I drink water) or maybe have a beer or two during the course of the day.
The smaller boat skippers are the ones who are ship faced.
 
Here's an opposite to my anchoring thoughts. Our club has a big anchoring out party in the bay adjacent to our club docks. It's an annual event and the number of boats attending usually runs between 45-55.

My boat is the "anchor boat". I set my anchor in an upwind position then boats raft up on both sides of mine. We have a band playing and it's a great afternoon of fun.


Very very cool. Looks like a fun time.
 
12511086-F2EC-436F-881A-05C9C1F6DCEB.jpeg
Contrarian opinion. We do it. Overnight. We check where everyone’s gen outputs and try not to have two facing each other. But we try not to run them at night. We also have CO detectors. We also check the weather ahead of time. It’s a blast. Just don’t buy tiny fenders.
 
This got me thinking of 2 questions I've always had.....When we raft up with friends I have always been the "anchor boat" in the center with several other boats on either side. We all successfully swing together with my boat anchor serving as the pivot. I have seen others raft together with multiple anchor boats. How do they swing? Is that a proper technique? Secondarily, can't there be too much mass on a single anchor?
 
This got me thinking of 2 questions I've always had.....When we raft up with friends I have always been the "anchor boat" in the center with several other boats on either side. We all successfully swing together with my boat anchor serving as the pivot. I have seen others raft together with multiple anchor boats. How do they swing? Is that a proper technique? Secondarily, can't there be too much mass on a single anchor?

If its going to be windy and if the winds are expected to shift, you will want the raft to swing to face the wind for comfort. So if your boat has a good enough anchor to hold the rest of the raft you should be OK. Keep in mind that you probably won't have a big enough anchor. Three 35 foot boats is way more weight than one so you won't hold in a blow. Basically, if its going to be really windy, you are better off breaking up the raft and overnighting solo.

Up where we are, we don't usually swing because there are some great coves that are sheltered. So the raft is usually set up just off shore with a couple anchors up front and a few stern ties to shore to hold it all fast.\


There are some Provincial and National park lands up here where they have mooring rings and pins drilled into the rock shoreline to allow solid stern ties. (Georgian Bay is mostly rock shoreline). Works fantastic. If there are no pins, one of our boating friends (Paul, formerly on JackieJV 560DB) came up with an idea to use climbing rock wedge nuts wedged in a rock crack as a stern tie point. They work great.

5052716-NOC02.jpg
 
When we raft up and we're expecting a crowd, I usually anchor first and set out about 7:1 scope, directly upwind against the prevailing SW winds. We're only in about 10-15' of water so it's not a helluva lot of chain.

We'll get another good size boat on either side of me with their anchors set out about 45* from mine and about the same amount of scope. That gives us a pretty solid platform for the other boats to raft up to. When we get several boats on each side of the raft we'll have one of them drop a hook directly in front of themselves. We do that a couple of times as we go around the circle and it seems to hold well.

As a safety rule, we run a floating line from each end boat across the opening with a couple of fenders attached. That keeps anyone from coming inside the circle with a dinghy where swimmers and rafters are having fun.
 
Up where we are, we don't usually swing because there are some great coves that are sheltered. So the raft is usually set up just off shore with a couple anchors up front and a few stern ties to shore to hold it all fast.

Yup. This is what we do, too. A couple stern anchors keeps us from pivoting as a group (something I wouldn’t be keen on doing). And sheltered coves.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,902
Members
60,933
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top